Whoops, LA Times. If you wanted to dig deep and ask the heavy questions about a candidate's experience, why did you wait until after the election to do it? If Barack Obama only had 3,723 billable hours as a junior associate at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Gallard over a four year period, that is a reasonable fact that you can bring up in an article, and ask where his so-called experience comes from. But like, it would have been a good idea to do this before he was elected president.
Or are you just sort of hoping to ride the Obama-backlash and figured you'd have an easier time of it once he was president and Americans realize our country didn't just magically fix itself overnight? Which is the equivalent of gay rights activists waiting until after Prop 8 was past before they started protesting in earnest. It's because those guys love rallies, right?
(via: Newsbusters)
Sam Zell's Tribune Company may start distributing The Wall Street Journal in metro areas, because it's not already enough of a giant clusterfuck over in the newspaper industry now that we need Rupert Murdoch's Journal being thrown at your door by the same guys who bring you theLA Times.
And what is Zell doing taking on this deal, which is still in "trial runs" with the local teamsters running the trucks? Didn't we just hear about how the man can't even afford his own baseball team, and now he's getting into some weird MGM/Weinstein-esque arrangement with another media baron?
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Who says you can't have it all? Sam Zell, that crazy/eccentric/crazy billionaire from Chicago that bought up the Tribune Company, including LA Times and Chicago Tribune, also owns the Chicago Cubs. Hopefully he treats his staff at the baseball field a little bit better than his employees at the paper, who were all trying to sue him before the industry went to shit.
But Zellmania is not catching, apparently, and when the hobbitish Illinoisan tried to cash in on some of the Barack fever by finding a buyer for 95% of the Cubs (everyone except James Harden), he was met by cold feet and a lot of hedging. So now Zell is trying to backtrack and only sell 50% of the team.
Sure, whatever. Because everyone is going to want to share ownership with one of the most well-known crazies.
It's not surprising that the Washington Post is endorsing Barack Obama this election. What is surprising is the time frame they decided to do it in: only half an hour after The Chicago Tribune came out with their own endorsement for the candidate, and four hours after the Tribune's sister paper, the LA Times, came out with a similar editorial.
For both the Tribune and Times, it marked the first time the papers have supported a Democratic nominee for the White House. The WP, a little less so, they've historically gone left. But the question remains: why the domino effect of endorsements on a Friday afternoon, after the morning/week's copies have already come out?
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The editors at the L.A. Times have come out in support Barack Obama, a little late in the game but it's all good. Especially since this is the first time in the paper's 120+ years in the business to endorse a Democrat for the office. Cramazing!
Looks like Sam Zell and co. haven't quite run the paper into the ground yet:
Our nation has never before had a candidate like Obama, a man born in the 1960s, of black African and white heritage, raised and educated abroad as well as in the United States, and bringing with him a personal narrative that encompasses much of the American story but that, until now, has been reflected in little of its elected leadership. The excitement of Obama's early campaign was amplified by that newness. But as the presidential race draws to its conclusion, it is Obama's character and temperament that come to the fore. It is his steadiness. His maturity.
Update: Chicago Tribune just came out with their own endorsement of Obama, which is their first Democratic nominee as well. Trend, or is it just because LA Times and Chicago are owned by the same Zell?
The Times is calling itself out: The paper heavily favors democratic nominee Barack O-B-A-M-A as an answer for their famous crossword puzzles. While Obama's been listed as a clue eight times, with such hints as "“Presidential candidate born in Hawaii," McCain's surname never made it onto the Will Shortz's edited game.
Of course, the Times's got a handy excuse for their liberal bias:
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Sam Zell is currently in a tug-of-war with his employees over at the LA Times and Tribune. The maligned writers filed a lawsuit against Zell for scamming the company out of millions of dollars, while the gnomely huckster fired back with internal memos about partnership, while calling the lawsuits "frivolous and unnecessary." All per the norm finger-pointing that occurs when businesses fail.
But now the game's stepped up 2 the streets, with the plaintiffs making Zell out to be a monster in a letter to the press that highlights Zell's crappy music taste:
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While the class action lawsuit against billionaire and LA Times owner Sam Zell rages on, the staffers who decided to slap their bylines on the court docs should just thank their lucky stars that they have an employer left to rage against. Even if he is a scam artist that is bilking the company for millions in a (admittedly genius) tax exploitation manoeuvre, at least he offered a corporate bailout when no one else was biting. Yes, this is a case of "best of the worst," but while Zell may be fleecing the Tribune Co., he's still signing paychecks. Some newspaper companies aren't that lucky. CONTINUED »
Oy, biopic season. Can't we just skip this year and forget about Milk and W and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People? Or, just keep that last one on account of Simon Pegg being funny and Kirsten Dunst being tolerable, and get rid off all the rest?
Because it's not officially time for the movie biographies unless actors start whipping it out to Oscarbait, here is Jamie Foxx going full retard crazy for the movie adaptation of L.A. Times' columnist Steve Lopez's book, The Soloist. Foxx plays "troubled street musician" Nathaniel Ayres, with perennial character actor and Iron Man supah-star RDJ along for the ride as Lopez, natch:
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LA Times writer Eric P. Lucas has had enough of the Heath Ledger hype and wrote a strongly-worded article to argue otherwise. Except instead of convincing everyone that the Oscar buzz is unnecessary, he makes the fatal mistake of insulting Heath and sending his diehard fans into an angry frenzy.
Another joke about office porn may be stale and in bad taste, but we don’t care: L.A. Times reporters may have access to all the NSFW content they want, but the rest of their job leaves something to be desired.
Since David Hiller took over as publisher of the Los Angeles paper 16 months ago, things have been rough out there.
There was the very public departure of Jim O’Shea.
The announcement that the paper will be cutting 50 jobs.
Ad revenue fell 8.5%, lower than the industry average, and the paper has lost major money in classified ads.
No one has any confidence in the new editor, Russ Stanton.
Sam Zell, the newish owner of the Times, pretends to care about great journalism, but is ultimately concerned with the bottom line.
Yesterday, John Montorio, one of two managing editors, announced that he was leaving at the end of the month. Most Times employees see Hiller as “star-struck outsider, a meddler in the newsroom who does not understand journalism or Los Angeles.”
As always, the rumors were true. The new L.A. Times editor (read: next head on the chopping block) is Russ Stanton, who is currently the editor of LATimes.com.
Stanton replaces Jim O'Shea, who you might remember, did not leave quietly.
Stanton will come into power following Sam Zell's motivational porn-at-the office go ahead and his less motivational layoffs at the Tribune Co.
And as long as we're on the topic of changes at the L.A. Times, circulation chief Jack Klunder will become president of the paper.
Some at the Times do not believe Stanton has the stature or experience to take-over the job. But this man collects bobble-heads, just like Dwight Schrute. And we all know how effective Schrute Bucks are.
Full memo after the jump. CONTINUED »
Let’s say you worked at a paper that had gone through four senior editors in three years and the general state of journalism was like your toilet after a big cup of coffee. And let’s say you lived in Los Angeles. And how about we quit the hypotheticals and say you work for the L.A. Times?
Well, then Jim O’Shea’s departure couldn’t have felt good. Because when he was ousted, he either was supremely bitter or incredibly honest—or maybe a little bit of both—and basically said the whole Times operation was crap. You’re probably interested in another job, but resigned to the fact that finding a new position at a paper on par with the L.A. Times is next to impossible.
But fear not, Sam Zell, owner of the Tribune Co., came in to make everyone feel better by talking smack on O’Shea, saying "[O'Shea] pissed all over the company where he worked for over 30 years.” But lest any reporters would take issue, Zell won them over by encouraging porn watching at work as long as masturbating and sexual harassment didn't get in the way of deadlines.
What a kidder. But seriously, your jobs are not secure.
So while you were enjoying your three day weekend, Jim O’Shea was getting all outraged about getting fired from the L.A. Times over financial disputes, the demise of print journalism, etc.
In the past three years, four senior editors have left the L.A. Times complaining about budget cuts. Effectively, the L.A. Times is that guy who can’t commit that every girl thinks she can change. Rumors have it that the next editor who believes newspapers can change is former business editor Russ Stanton, who currently is the head of editorial content at latimes.com. CONTINUED »
The current system relies too heavily on voodoo economics and not enough on the creativity and resourcefulness of journalists. … This company, indeed, this industry, must invest more in solid, relevant journalism. We must integrate the speed and agility of the Internet with the news judgment and editorial values of the newsroom, values that are more important than ever as the hunger for news continues to surge and gossip pollutes the information atmosphere. … We need to tell readers more about Barack Obama and less about Britney Spears.
-Former L.A. Times editor Jim O'Shea's departing memo, via L.A. Observed
So, The Wire. It’s kind of a big deal. It’s HBO’s rebound show after The Sopranos. Also if you read that New Yorker profile of David Simon, the show’s creator, the guy comes off as kind of a genius.
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"Bruce Lee was more than a martial artist," said Ioane, 20. "He also had an amazing philosophy of life. He's a cultural icon recognized all over the world — except on this campus," where Lee studied for three years in the early 1960s.
Ioane and 20 other University of Washington students have collected more than 1,000 signatures — including from nearly all members of the men's and women's basketball teams — as part of the effort to build a monument to Lee.
-Tomas Alex Tizon, "They're Hoping Bruce Lee Can Bust On Through," L.A. Times, on a student movement at the University of Washington for a monument honoring martial artist and former student, Bruce Lee.
Apparently, it’s a slow week in print, too because the L.A. Times is reporting that kids don’t want to spend money online. No way, right?
Okay, media moguls, get this: A 15 year-old kid who even works for her student paper says, "If I want to read a newspaper, I go online, but I wouldn't pay for it. Our generation doesn't pay for things on the Internet." F, man. What are we going to do?
Let’s just burn this entire internet thing to the ground. What's there to lose? To keep it real, Lolcat isn’t that funny.
Easy there, big spenders! Before you call up Sam Zell with yet another high-priced takeover bid for his newly acquired multimillion dollar corporation, you might be interested in know that he's not actually looking to sell.
"I said it to Eli Broad. I said it to Ron Burkle. I said it to David Geffen, and I'm saying it to you," Zell said at a conference on corporate growth.
He then quipped: "Now, if you have a price, we can talk."
Aw, thanks for thinking of us, Sam! But actually, right now we're far more focused on scraping together enough cash to cover our rent, health insurance and daily necessities. Oh, but if our financial situation changes, you'll absolutely be the second person to know.
That is, assuming Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. turns down our bid for the New York Times first.
Editorial Director
